The journy to a new life
by Walking in Little Circles
Summary: Treator is a mistreated tom cat. What happens when he meets a cat from outside? For Misgivings Real Kittypet challendge. T for animal crulity.


**AN: This is based off the true story of a horse, more or less. Of coarse, the horse doesn't go off with a bunch of cats. This is the horse in cat form. Why the description of Treator may not be possible on a real cat. Nevertheless, enjoy~ **

**P.s: The unamed meddicine apprentice may show up in a future one-shot, along with others in this one-shot. I rather like these characters. Exept Deepstar...ending was a tad rushed...A-hem. I will shut up now.**

I stare out the window. The rain pours down, dancing across the field. I do not like rain, because it brings back memories from those days, days from my kitthood. I frown at the rain, wishing it would go away, wishing I could stop thinking about the days long gone. Days I would rather forget.

My housefolk were gone for the moment. I'd never liked them, or any housefolk for that matter. They were the cause of my suffering. Of my horrible memories.

I grew up in a cage. Little food, little water. I always had to fight for everything. It was a tough life, and I received many scars from those days. One day, two housefolk came and took me somewhere else. They poked me with strange looking things and took my blood from me. Then, they put me in another cage. It was cleaner, but still a cage. Then, my current housefolk took me to their den.

I'm snapped out of my memories by the sound of barking. I stand up in shock and see a brown tabby tom with green eyes leap onto the fence post. The barking gets louder and the cat leaps into the yard. I peek through the flap on the door.

"Hello," I call. "Who are you?"

The tom looks at me. "My name is Threshfeather. What's yours?"

"Treator," I tell him. "Your name is weird. Are you from around here?"

He nods. "Yes, actually. And you?"

"Yes," I say. "I live in the twoleg place right here."

Threshfeather runs at the flap on the door. I dodge as he leaps through. "I'm going to borrow this twoleg place for a bit, thank you."

I gape at him. "W-what? B-b-but my house folk could come back any minute!"

Threshfeather rolls his eyes. "I could hide, you know."

"B-but..." I protest, but Threshfeather won't hear it.

"Nice place you got," he says, taking a drink from my water bowl.

"That's mine!" I say. Seeing his glare I add, "But you can have some, I guess..."

"Thanks," says Threshfeather. "Have you seen any other cats around here?"

"No, sorry."

Threshfeather sighs. "Really, Rabbitpaw?" he mutters. "You go out by yourself and then you don't come back..." he gives a cough. "Sorry, Treator. Just talking to myself."

"Who's Rabbitpaw?" I ask.

"My medicine cat apprentice. He's very headstrong, unfortunately. I told him asking WindClan would be less of a bother than adventuring out all this way..." Threshfeather glances at me. "If you see another cat, help him out, okay?"

It takes me a couple of seconds to respond. "Uh-huh, I guess..." I say.

"Good," says Threshfeather. "I best go searching for him again. Farewell." Threshfeather leaps back out the cat door.

I watch him go back out into the rain, full of questions. Were does he live? Who is WindClan? What does being an apprentice mean?

There's nothing I can do now. He's probably a long ways away. I stare at my reflection in the mirror. I have reddish-brown fur with black tabby stripes. Halfway down my legs, my fur turns to black. I have white paws and dark brown eyes. The rain persists in bringing back more memories of my past. I wince as I go into another flashback.

At first, these new house folk seem nice. There's always food and water. But then, a few moons after I get there, one of the smaller ones tries to steal my food. I can see him sneaking over. I am mad. How dare he try and steal the food in front of me. So, I do the first thing I can think of. I bite him.

The lady housefolk is mad at me. I don't get it. Shouldn't she be madder at him? He was trying to take my food!

Almost the next moon, he does it again. I scratch him this time across his knee. He screams and runs from me. The lady housefolk comes back and she's even madder at me. She tends to her kit and then picks up a curved piece of plastic. Soon, a black monster comes for me.

The black monster takes me to a place very similar, I think, to hell.

Every time I did something they didn't like, they tied my legs together and threw me out. They didn't care whether it was rain or snow or sleet or hot. They threw me out, and then starved me. They put me in a cage when they weren't doing either one. I almost starved to death. The lady housefolk came to get me many moon later. She was paradise compared to that place.

I snap out of my daymare again by the sound of the twoleg monster. The twoleg and her two kits run in with food and set it on the table. They refill my water bowl and sit down to eat. As soon as they're done, the kit refills my bowl and they all go off to bed. I settle down to eat. As I do, I catch the color white out of the corner of my eye.

Looking closer, I realize that it's a small tom. Remembering my promise to Threshfeather, I paw the glass in the hopes of getting his attention. The tom sees me, and calls over his sholder. I see Threshfeather hop over the fence as well.

After they come in through the cat door, Threshfeather introduces me to his apprentice, Rabbitpaw. "Do you mind if we stay the night?" he asks.

Rabbitpaw makes a face. "At a kittypet's house? But doesn't that go against the warrior code?"

Threshfeather patted his apprentice's back with his tail. "I think StarClan will understand."

I finally get the courage to ask him. "Clans? What are they?"

Rabbitpaw laughs. "You mean you don't know what clans are? Or about the warrior code?"

I shake my head. "No."

Rabbitpaw gives me a grin. "Do want to hear about them?"

rabbitpaw spends the rest of the night telling me stories. He told of the legendary clans. TigerClan, LepordClan, and LionClan. He told about the current , WindClan, ShadowClan, and ThunderClan, where Rabbitpaw and Threshfeather were from. He explained about the world of a medicine cat. I found this to be quite boring. It sounded like important work, but boring nonetheless.

What really caught my attention were the stories about warriors. I was caught in their world of battles, friendship, and loyalty. They protected each other. Back in my kit days, I had nobody. Even here, I rarely saw another cat. A clan sounded like a paradise. There was only one flaw in my daydreams. My fear of the outside.

When the sun started to rise, Threshfeather got up and streched. He had slept the whole night, unlike Rabbitpaw and myself. "Time to go, Rabbitpaw. The twolegs should be waking up soon."

Rabbitpaw stands up. "Well, nice meeting you Treator. May StarClan walk with you."

"Wait!" I say. "You never told me about StarClan!"

Threshfeather looks at his apprentice. "You told him about the clans, didn't you."

Rabbitpaw drags his front paw. "Erm..."

Threshfeather looks at me. "You have scars," he says. "You fight often?"

"I used to fight for everything," I tell him. He asks for no further explanation, thankfully. I don't like to think about it.

"Treator," Threshfeather says. "Do you want to join ThunderClan?"

I hesitate. I really want to. I really truly do. I look at Threshfeather. I look outdoors. I look at Threshfeather. I look outdoors. I look at Threshfeather for a third time and say, "Can I explain something to you quick?"

To the credit of Threshfeather, he doesn't laugh like Rabbitpaw does. "It's okay," he says. "I'll push you out."

Rabbitpaw laughs harder. "I wanna help too!" he says.

"No Rabbitpaw," says Threshfeather. "Now, do you want to go outside this badly, Treator?"

I nod.

"Are you sure?"

Rabbitpaw rolls his eyes. "If he's afraid of the outdoors, then why doesn't he stay in his comfy little bed and eat out of his bowl and be all pampered. He isn't a real warrior."

I'm so mad, I walk out before I realize what I'm doing. Fortunately, the rain has stopped, so my reaction isn't as bad. I start to shiver and shake, another flashback threatening to take me over.

Threshfeather supports my shoulder. "Are you alright, Treator?" he asks.

"No..." I squeak. "Not at all."

Rabbitpaw laughed. "Like I said. A pampered wimp."

Threshfeather glared at Rabbitpaw. "Rabbitpaw..."

"Sorry," Rabbitpaw muttered.

I shake myself out of it. "I'm fine now."

"Good," says Threshfeather. "Let's go."

We travel for a few days, and I realize that the outdoors isn't as bad as I thought. Even though my pads are sore by the end, I begin to dream of the outside. The dreams were no longer nightmares. They were good ones, ones of catching prey and battles.

One day, Threshfeather wakes me up and says, "We're almost there."

I feel a thrill. We're almost there! I get to be in ThunderClan!

After we follow the river for awhile, we reach a forest. "Is this it?" I ask.

Threshfeather nods. "Mudtail will be happy to see us," he said. "He's had to cover for me the entire time I was searching for Rabbitpaw. His apprentice wasn't really happy about it."

"Why wouldn't he be?" I asked.

"Mudtail's apprentice is extremely loyal to WindClan. Helping other clans isn't really his style. Then again, the clans haven't really been kind to him," Threshfeather shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"What do you mean?" I tilted my head quizzically.

Threshfeather appeared to turn deaf. He took a sniff of the air and stepped back. "ShadowClan," he said.

Without another word, the three of us ran into camp. I recognized the scent of dog from my days at the place the black monster took me too. Instinct took over as I raced towards a small black tom, scratching its nose. The tom placed a heavy blow down my side. I tried to slip under his belly, but he lept onto my back. I tried to shake him off, but he clung fearlessly to my back.

Suddenly, I felt the weight lift. I saw a white she-cat with blue eyes give the tom a quick bite on the shoulder. He scampered away, limping.

"You battle pretty good," said the she-cat. "Not as good as me, but still."

I rolled my eyes. "I did most of the work, you know."

"Whatever," said the she-cat.

I heard a yowl. A bunch of cats ran away from ThunderClan. "Looks like we won," said the she-cat. "My name's Snowfeather. What's yours?"

"Treator," I say.

Snowfeather nodded. "Were you a rouge?"

I shake my head. Rabbitpaw had told me about rouges. "Kittypet."

"Really now..." Snowfeather said, lost in thought.

I hear another yowl. "Let all those who can catch their own prey gather under the high rock for a meeting!"

"Come on, Treator." says Snowfeather. "Deepstar wants to address the clan."

Deepstar cleared his throat. "You may have noticed a strange cat in our camp. He is a kitty pet. He fights pretty good for a kittypet. So, he will become a warrior."

Deepstar looked at me. "Treator, do you want to become a warrior?"

I nodd. "Yes, please."

"Then I name you Blacklegs. Good luck and yadyadyda..." Deepstar hopped of the ledge.

"He's a little...silent," Snowfeather said apologeticly. "StarClan hasen't smited us yet, so I guess they don't mind that he skipped a few words. She turned to me. "Ready to explore camp, Blacklegs?"

I nod. "Yes I am."


End file.
